Sign declaration if allegations true, EC asks Rahul; he says already took oath to uphold Constitution

New Delhi: The Election Commission has asked Rahul Gandhi to share details of wrongful entries and omissions in voters' list and sign a declaration if he is convinced that his analysis of 'vote theft' is correct, sources said on Friday but the Congress leader hit back asserting he has already taken oath in Parliament to uphold the Constitution. As Gandhi continued with his attack on the EC alleging vote theft in at least three states, the poll panel said if he believes in his analysis and feels that his allegations against the EC are true, he should have "no problem" in signing the declaration under electoral rules and submit names wrongfully added or removed from voters' list, according to the sources. However, if Gandhi does not sign the declaration, it would mean that he does not believe in his analysis and resultant conclusions and "absurd allegations". In which case he should apologise to the nation, they felt.

The chief electoral officers of three states on Thursday asked Gandhi to share the names of electors he claimed were either included or excluded wrongfully from the voter lists along with a signed declaration for the poll authorities to initiate "necessary proceedings" in the matter. Addressing a Vote Adhikar rally in Bengaluru on Friday, Gandhi said he has already taken oath in Parliament to uphold the Constitution. At a media briefing, the Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha claimed on Thursday that there was "vote chori" of 1,00,250 votes in a Karnataka constituency, with 11,965 duplicate voters in the segment, 40,009 voters with fake and invalid addresses, 10,452 bulk voters or single address voters, 4,132 voters with invalid photos and 33,692 voters misusing Form 6 of new voters.